Michael Jackson’s dermatologist did not rule out that he may be the biological father of Jackson’s children, and Dr. Arnold Klein denied that he ever gave Jackson dangerous drugs.
Klein, in an interview Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” denied that he was on the list of doctors being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department. When he saw that someone gave Jackson a dangerous drug, he was the one “who limited everything, who stopped everything,” Klein said. Jackson danced around Klein’s Beverly Hills office just three days before his death and was “not in terrible pain,” Klein said. Debbie Rowe, who was briefly married to Jackson and gave birth to his two oldest children, worked for 23 years in Klein’s office, he said. The doctor refused to say whether he thought Rowe should get custody of them instead of Jackson’s mother, Katherine Jackson. “I can’t make those answers, because ‘should have’ and ‘will’ are two different things,” he said. Klein was scheduled to talk to CNN’s Larry King about Michael Jackson on Wednesday night. Klein’s response when Diane Sawyer asked whether he was the biological father of Jackson’s children left open the possibility that he was. “Not to the best of my knowledge,” Klein said. “All I can tell you is, best of my knowledge, I am not the father of these children. But I am telling you, if push comes to shove, I can’t say anything about.” Klein said he “can’t answer it in any other way, because, you know what, I don’t want to feed any of this insanity that is going around.” Katherine Jackson was given temporary guardianship of the children by a judge several days after her son’s death. Rowe was considering whether she will seek custody or visitation of the two born to her, her lawyer said last week. The Los Angeles County coroner is waiting for toxicology test results — not due for at least another week — before determining what killed Jackson last month. The death certificate listed the cause of death as “deferred.”
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Sources said Tuesday that when Jackson collapsed, his arms were riddled with marks, and their veins had collapsed, both characteristics found in intravenous drug users. The revelations add to the growing speculation that prescription drugs played a part in Jackson’s death. Klein said that when Jackson came to his office the week of his death, there were no indications anything was wrong: no “problems of slurred speech, shorten movement or anything.” “I saw nothing at that point that would make me worry whatsoever,” he said. “But I was always concerned about him, because I was always worried about other doctors.” He said “the problem with Michael” was that because he was rich, “no matter what he wanted, someone would give it to him.” Klein said he once convinced Jackson not to take Dilantin, a drug he was “10 times stronger than morphine.” “I said, ‘You can’t take that. It’s poison. Throw that in the trash,’ ” he said. “And I got him to throw it in the toilet. But I can’t be there every minute.” Klein said that LAPD investigators have not contacted him and that he is “not one of the doctors” being questioned about Jackson’s drug use. “I have given him medication, yes,” he said. “He could take all the medication I have given him in a year, and nothing would happen to him.” Klein said he has “sedated him in the past,” when he “put him through very painful procedures. “There was nothing wrong with the manner I treated Michael, because what I had to do is restructure for an individual who had lupus, who had terrible acne scarring his face,” he said.
